If Rutherford B. Hayes's significance as chief executive had faded in the public memory, nothing brought it back into our consciousness more than the similarities between the controversial elections of 1876 and 2000.

The "noble cause" of Vietnam was the longest war in America's history, the most unpopular war, and the first modern war America lost. Vietnam ended the belief that America had a duty to fight everywhere abroad for freedom.

The winds began to blow in the spring and summer of 1929. Nobody took much notice. The stock market soared from peak to peak, and President Hoover foresaw a final triumph over poverty. But two storms, one environmental, one financial, were about to break over America-- with horrific consequences.